ATI vs nVidia

[the deceived]

Overclocking can be a dangerous thing to do if you don't know what you are doing (which in this case, as you said, you don't know how to) so avoid the "overclockability" of an item.

Yeah, that Logitech should be OK, but wireless has been known to lagg (especially at key moments in games) so I might suggest a wired keyboard and mouse. But that is up to you.

As for fans, I got a case with the possibility of 5 case fans (2 at the front, 1 at the side, and 2 at the back). I set it up to I have the two fans at the front to blow air backwards, the 1 at the side to blow air into the case and over the GPU and CPU (roughly), and the the 2 at the back to suck the air out. I also have a dual fan PSU so in total (if you include my heatsinks etc) I have about 10 fans blowing inside my case. That seems a lot and people would tink it is noisy, but if you get a fan controller then you can control their speed, and hence their noise levels.

At the moment my case tempertaure is 33.5 degrees c, so I would recommend getting at least 3 case fans. I spent on a new heatsink for my processor, and well the stock one should be fine as your not overclocking.

Hope all this helps!

 

[EricM]

Well the keyboard came free with Norton AntiSecurity which was purchased for another computer in the house. So I can easily get a wired keyboard no problem. So 3 80mm fans would be enough?

 

[the deceived]

Yeah, wired keyboards and mice are annoying because of the mess and extra wires they have. But unless you are willing to spend over $50 for a mouse (the new G7), then stick to wired mice.

Well as you are not overclocking, having no fans technically should be the option as all the parts you will buying will come with stock heatsinks that should cool the hardware enough or they wouldn't put them on the hardware But yeah, 3 80mm fans should be fine. Arranging them is more important though. You said that the case you are getting has space for 3 80mm fans right? Well have the one at the side blowing air into the case, and the other two sucking air out. But try to get get a case where you can put a fan at the front so you have air blowing from the front, to the back over all the components:


**FAN**<<-------------**FAN**<<-------------**FAN**
--------------------**COMPONENTS**-------------------

Haha, hope you like the diagram

 

[JustinMcG67]

Hmmm interesting about those 2-2-2-5 specs. So the lower the better. That's pretty interesting as well. I got PC2700 and PC2100, but the PC2700 latency is clocked down to the PC2100. Still, pretty sweet stuff, much better then my old SDRAM. haha.

But yeah, I'm seriously thinking that this new ATi video card in Crossfire technology will beat dual 7800GTXs. I want to see a nechmark against the two cards. Hopefully soon we will see a new becnhmark.

But yeah, I also have a question. My video card temperature is high most of the time, somewheres around 63 Celcious was the highest I think I ever saw it. So I was wondering, when I get my new 430W PSU, will the temperature go down? Because I think it won't strain for power as much, thus decreasing the flow of electrons speeding in and out super fast to give the very minimum power. So will the new PSU give the computer more room to breathe and thus make everything not strain for power, also lowering friction from the electrons flowing, and anad thus lowering the temperature?

 

[ownage]

no, your video card will not drop temperatures, it will still want the same amount of power, you just have the ability to provide more power if needed. And EricM, get the 3800+X2, not the 4400+ the extra 1MB cache is useless in gaming, you will only see a difference when encoding videos and that kind of stuff, but its like a minute max. So why waste the money?

 

[TRDCorolla1]

Wow good info. You hit that one right on the button. I am no overclocker as I dont even know what it really is! I am just guessing its pushing components to more than they are capable of handling? I already have a logitech wireless keyboard and optical mouse so I got a pretty decent keyboard and mouse. As for the 7800GTX... I heard it got recalled? I think there was a post on here about that. And as for fans what should I need there?

Yes, that's pretty much what OC mean. People are always trying to squeeze more power on stock chips by tampering with the BIOS. It's fun stuff and you'll get some good results. But proper cooling goes with it too if you plan to go beyond tolerable range.

YOu're talking about fans for your system? Depend on what your case can handle. Most cases have a side fan, 1 or 2 rear exhaust fan, and some high performance cases have a front 120mm fan. That's what I would be looking into.

As far as the 7800GTX, if you plan on getting that, you will OWN. Plain and simple. No OC and all that crap. You'll do great using stock numbers and cooling wise, you don't need anything fancy or extra stuff although an exhaust blower right below the video card would be nice...hint, hint.

 

[EricM]

Well anything will be faster then what I have now...so by exhaust blower do u mean something like this ...http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=664350&CatId=804
I was planning on putting one of these... http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=120565&CatId=804 in the PCI slot right under the GPU... and then there is this one... http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=39598&CatId=804
Are these what you mean??? As for overclocking I am new to all of this and with what I will be doing with the system it wont be too demanding so I wont overclock. I barely knew what a BIOS was before starting my research. So for cooling 2 80mm rear fans and a side pannel one will be good as well as an exhaust blower as you mentioned and a HD cooler? Would that be enough? As I said I ordered a case because it was a super deal, it didnt cost me much so I can get another case if i need to, but I am going to check it and see if there is a fan port in the front. I know there is a vent in the front.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

Yup, that's what I mean by exhaust blowers. The blue neon one looks nice and so does the masscool one. I never seen that kind of version as you pointed out in the first link. Those will help out with cooling.

The cooling you have should be fine. I have two 80mm fan also mounted on the front of the case to go with my 2 80mm rear exhaust fans and a 90mm side fan. Plus an additional exhaust blower on the bottom of my GPU.

 

[EricM]

Thanks for the help. And while we are on the topic... Is a fan controller worth getting? And how can you measure the temp of everything? I think I am almost ready to start finalzing my parts. For the graphics card I am going with a 7800gtx, but as i said before I thought I saw a thread on here that there was a problem with them? Im a bit confused now for the CPU also, is there much of a difference between the X2 3800 and the X2 4400? And would a 500w power supply be enough?

 

[TRDCorolla1]

500watt should be fine unless you go with SLi. Than, you'll need to get like a 550 or more. I look at what the CPU core has to offer in terms of performance. The Toledo core has higher L2 cache for better performance. If I were to build a PC now, that's the one I would get. The X2 4400+ Toledo or the 4800+, but that cost a lot more. Clockwise, the 4400+ is obviously higher than the 3800+ so that gives you more room for OC than the 3800+.

Oh, you don't really need a fan controller. I would invest in a better case though. Don't get a cheap case. Something like this is really nice and should provide excellent cooling:

Thermaltake Soprano VB1000SWS Silver Chassis: 0.8 mm SECC, Front Door: Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811133146

The only thing I hate about this case is the USB access port. Why the hell would they make it accessible from the top of the case like that? Wierd.